§ MR. D. A. THOMASI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if his attention has been called to the small quantities of prepared cocoa and manufactured tobacco imported into the United 1406 Kingdom as compared with the quantities of raw cocoa and unmanufactured tobacco, respectively, so imported; and if he will cause inquiry to be made in order to ascertain whether the higher duties now imposed on prepared cocoa and manufactured tobacco are of a protective character, with a view to their early modification.
§ MR. ASQUITHMy attention has been called to the comparatively small quantities of cocoa and tobacco imported into the United Kingdom in a manufactured state, and I am disposed to think that the additional duty on the imported manufactured article is in these cases more than the exact equivalent of the loss of interest and of duty-paid material or the expense caused to the manufacturer by excise restrictions when the manufacture takes place in bond. An exact equivalent is, however, from the nature of the case, very difficult to determine; but I am giving the subject consideration.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that Mr. Gladstone, in proposing the present scale of tobacco duties, expressly stated that they had been fixed so that the people employed in the trade, many of whom were women and children, might be well provided for?
§ MR. ASQUITHI cannot carry in my mind what Mr. Gladstone said in 1862. If the right hon. Gentleman will put down his Question I will answer it.